Huest



(No Model.)

S. R. PARKHURST. Machine for Opening and Cleaning Wool.

' Patented March 8 NPETERS, PHOTO-LITHOGRAPNER. wAsHxNGToN. D C.

the steel-toothed feed-rollers b b.

STATES FITIC@ STEPHEN R. PARKHURST, OF MONTCLAIR, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNORTO EMILY R. PARKHURST, OF SAME PLAGE.

MACHINE FOR-OPENING AND CLEANING WOOL.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 238,709, dated March 8,1881.

Application tiled August 20, 1880. (No model.)

To all whom t may concern:

Be it known that I, STEPHEN R. PARK- HURST, of Montclair, in the countyof Essex and State ot' New Jersey, have invented an ImprovementinMachines for Opening` and Cleaning Wool and other Fibrous Materials, ofwhich the following' is a specification.

In Letters Patent No.56,675 granted to me, there are two feeding-rollersand a belt, from which the wool is taken by a picker-cylinder andtransferred to two steel-tooth burr-cylinders, and 'thence removed by abrush.

The object of my present invention is to open and clean the wool insteadof picking it. Wool after being washed is matted together, and usnallyithas been subjected to a picking operation to open the wool previous tocarding. In the ordinary pickers the wool is torn and thel ber broken toa considerable extent. My machine, patented'as aforesaid, picked andopened the wool with but little injury to the ber. My present inventionis made for preventing, as far as possible, any injury to the fiber.This I accomplish by the combination, with the feedrollers and the twosteel-toothed cylinders, of two cylinders with hooked teeth that areemployed in such a manner that the ber receives three opening andcleaning op'- erations before it reaches the strippers that knock offthe burrs and foreign substances, and the speed is regulated in such amanner that the tirst opening operation is slow, the second is faster,and the third still'faster, so that the matted tiber is not torn or cut,but simply pulled apart; and this is done in such a manner that theburrs and foreign substances are loosened, and many fall away beforereaching'the strippers; and I make use of an additional beater that actsupon the ber as it is thrown ofi' from the blower, and shake out anyloose particles of foreign matter by centrifugal force and concussion.

In the drawing I have represented my improvements by a vertical sectionof the machine.

Ihe apron a is upon rollers a', and it is moved in the-direction of thearrow to convey the wool, cotton, or other fibrous material to The teethof the feed-rollers b b stand in the same direction as in the. saidPatent No. 56,675, and the wool is taken from them bythe rst hookedtoothopening-cylinder o. The teeth of this stand in the opposite direction tothose on the picker in said patent, and carry the wool down instead ofup. This allows any heavy or large burrs or other pieces of foreignmatter to fall off through the grate s into the receptacle t. 'Ihe beris subjected to a second opening operation by the hooked teeth of thesecond opening-cylinder, d. I prefer to drive the cylinder d in the samedirection as the cylinder c, so that the wool on the teeth of thecylinder c is acted upon downwardly, and thereby subjected to a secondopening operation and carried along over the grating u, so thatparticles of foreign matter may have an opportunity to fall away, andthen the wool is taken up by the toothed opener l to the picker-cylinderg, and by the opener c to the steel-toothed picker-cylinder f. Thesepickercylinders fand g, and their revolving stripping-rollers h and 7c,are similar to those in the aforesaid patent, but the action inconnection with the toothed openers o al is very different from that ofthe steel-toothed cylinders and the one picker shown in said Patent No.56,675, for in said patent the adjacent surfaces run in oppositedirections, while in my present improvement they run in the samedirection. The result is that the action upon the wool is more gentle,and the liber is pulled apart or opened gradually instead of beingsubjected to the sudden action of teeth movrlng in opposite directions.

I find that the efficiency of the machine is promoted and the wool keptfrom injury by making use of a surface-speed about that indicated below;but I do not limit myself in this particular. Starting with asurface-speed of one for the feed-rollers, the toothed openingcylindersshould travel at about double that speed of surface, so that the tirstopening and cleaning operation between the toothed feedrollers and thehooked teeth of cylinder c will be gradual. If the toothed cylinders cand d travel at the same speed and in the same direction the adjacentsurfaces will have a speed of two, and one be moving in one directionand the other in the other direction. This will IOO clean and open thewool in a very thorough manner, and as these teeth are smooth hookingtapered teeth they will pull the lock of wool open without injury.

I remark that with some qualities of wool it may be preferable torevolve the cylinder d in the opposite direction to that shown, and

at a slower speed than the cylinder c, in order that the second openingoperation may be as gentle as the rst opening operation.

With the surface-speed of two for the cylinder c the steel-toothedpicker-cylinders f and g should have a surface-speed of about six, so asto draw oii' the wool and spread it as a thin layer on each cylinder fand g, and I remark that although the teeth of the cylinders c and dstand as shown, so that the cylinders fand g tend to pull the liber offin the direction of the length of the said teeth on the cylinders f g,still the hooked form of such teeth causes them to hold the looks ofwool long enough for them to be thoroughly opened as they are taken uponthe cylinders f g.

The surface-speed of the strippers h k should be about ltwice as greatas that of the cylinders fg, as usual in this class of machines. Theaction of these strippers, as is well known, is to spread and open thelocks of wool and beat out any burrs or particles of foreign matter. Theburrs from the stripper It are received into a box at a', as heretoforeemployed. The burrs from the stripper 7s fall down and eventually dropthrough the grating or screens a s.

The blower t is connected, by the trunk c', with the closed box tbeneath the gratings u s, so as to exhaust and drive away any dust thatis separated from the wool, and not only aid in clearing the wool, butprevent the dust passing out into the mill. i

The delivery-brush Z is similar to that shown in my aforesaid Patent No.56,675. It takes the ber oif the steel -toothed picker-cylinders fand gand blows it away through the trunk 7c.

In Letters Patent No. 163,687 I have shown a range of fingers in thedelivery-trunk of a blower to catch the fiber, and the saine is sweptoft' the fingers and subjected to a concussion by a revolving beater.

I have discovered that it is preferable to dispense with the fingers andallow the beaters to act directly upon the fibers or locks of Wool asthey float in the air, and by concussion and centrifugal action throwoff burrs and particles of heavy or foreign matters that may be with thefiber.. ith this object in view I introduce in the trunk k a revolvingbeater, m, the case or spout at this place having a curved top, L', anda grated bottom, lz, above the box q, and by preference adetlector-plate, I3, is applied at the Lipper part of the spout ortrunk, so as to give a downward direction to the ber floating in theair, so that the beater m may project the same downwardly against thegrating Z2 at the bottom for the aforesaid purposes, and I prefer to usea second revolving` beater, a, and a second deector, o, so as to exposethe escaping ber to a second cleaning action of the same character aslast described, and I remark that a third beater might be employed.

The means for giving rotation to the respectve rollers and cylinders arepreferably as folows:

The power is applied to the shaft a2 of the toothed opening-cylinder c,and by thc gearwheels 2, 3, and et motion is communicated to the secondopening-cylinder, d.

Upon the shaft a2 there is a small pulley, and by the belt 5 motion isgiven to the pulley 6, pinion 7 and gear-wheel 8, which latter is on theshaft of the feed-roller b', and a small wheel on this shaft gears intoa wheel on the shaft of the feed-roller b,to give motion to saidfeed-rollers.

The picker-cylinders f and g are rotated by the belt 9, which passesover pulleys on the shafts of f and g, and also over a pulley on thesha-ft of the intermediate gear, 3.

The delivery-brush lis revolved by a belt, 10, that passes over a largepulley upon the shaft a2, and over a pulley upon the shaft of l.

A large pulley upon the shaft of the opening-cylinder d, and the crossedbelt 11, give rotation to the shaft 12, and by the belt 13 motion isgiven to the stripping-rollers h and k.

A crossed belt, 16, from the pulley on the shaft of d gives motion tothe shaft of the blower, and by the crossed belt 14 rotation is given tothe beater fm, and by the belt 15 motion is given to the second beater,a.

I claim as my invention- 1. The combination, with the steel-toothedpicker-cylindersf g, and strippers l1J 7c, of the two opening cylindersc d, having hooked teeth, and acting with the cylinders f and g,respectively, and the feed-apron a, and feedrollers b b', substantiallyas set forth.

2. The combination of apairof toothed feeding-rollers, b b', anopening-cylinder, c, acting to open and comb the wool as delivered fromthe feed-rollers, a second opening-cylinder, d, acting with the cylinderc to open the wool, a grating beneath the cylinders c d, steel-toothedpickin g-cylinders fg, acting, respectively, with the cylinders c and d,and a brush to remove the ber from the cylinders f g, substantially asspecified.

3. In a fiber-cleaning machine, the combination, with the delivery-brushl and the trunk thereof, of a revolving beater acting upon the fiber,and a grating beneath the beater, substantially as set forth.

4. The combination, with the delivery-brush and spout or trunk in aber-c1eaning machine, of a deflector in the trunk or spout of the brush,and a revolving beater that acts upon the fiber as it passes throughsaid trunk, substantially as specified.

5. The combination, with the delivery-brush and trunk or spout, in aber-cleanin g machine, of a deflector in the trunk of the brush,

IOO

IOS

IIO

:t revolving beater, a screen or grating, and a upon the Wool and open,brush, and clean the 1o closed box beneath the beater, substantiallyassame, substantially as set forth.

set forth. Signed by 'me this 16th day of August, A.

6. The combination, in a machine for remov- D. 1880. 5 ing foreignsubstances from Wool or other ber, s R PARKHURSCR of a feeding-belt,toothed feed-rollers, two

hooked-tooth opening-cylinders, two steel- Witnesses:

tooth piokeroylinders and strippers, a deliv- GEO. T. PINCKNEY,ery-brush, and a beater to act in succession WILLIAM G. MOTT.

